Gardens, Birds, and Clouds... oh my

Magpie

Magpie

Immortal
I have a cloud picture for Daniel and the thread about climatology is just about to drop off the first page so I'm going to start a new one. It seemed like a couple of people in that thread were on board with cloud/weather photo sharing. :-)

But let's make this a general thread about what ever is happening in your garden (plant wise), your yard (creature wise), phenologically wise (nature observations in general), or weather wise (fires, floods, snow or what have you).

Daniel, you wanted to see the cloud photo I took last week but I'm not sure you caught it in the climatology thread. one I took tonight is much nicer, I think. It rained at dinner time and this is what it looked like afterwards out my front door. The camera is facing east and the setting sun is shining on all the houses and trees.

My irises are blooming. I love iris. And things are very green in general since we've had so much rain. We just planted a very tiny weeping cherry tree (like 4 inches tall tiny!) and some bare root fairy shrub roses. We'll see how they do. In our yard, it's kind of sink or swim since we get spotty sun in most areas.

And the starlings came to visit tonight although none of them half so brilliant as Starling's starling. I've learned that the big brown ones are the juveniles and that starlings look different during breeding season than non-breeding season. My goal is to see, identify, or learn something new about birds as often as I can this summer. I am very focused on being very aware of summer. Stop... take it in. Summer will be gone before you know it. You must be present in this moment, now.

Taking note of the birds helps. When new observations about birds fall off, I'll move to the insects. We saw huge dragonflies on our walk last night. :-)

So what's Mother (Nature) doing in your area?
 
i can find one new one and 2 old ones that may fit your suggestions.

The new one from two days ago is just a bough of a white pine but it looks lovely with the dawn after a night of rain.

The old two are from our trip of 3 yrs ago to the lower mountains (approx. 1800ft above sea level) of north carolina. The first is a telephoto shot across a valley of a home and a cloud bank beyond it and it turned out amazing as to perspective.

The last one is looking SE in the latter afternoon of a cloud bank that i really was enjoying

I as well must see if i can expand my bird sightings here if i can:).
 
two nights in a row around here (Northern Colorado). I think they're some of my favorites, lighting up the night sky and keeping the day that follows a bit cooler.

Which is why I was able to spend so much time in our yard this weekend, weeding and getting more work done on the new home for Marjorie, our compost pile. She's trading spaces with the raspberries, who crave more sun. The best part of it is, I got help from my dad and genuinely helpful help (as opposed to 'help') from my kids. My son took the cane cutter to a particularly overgrown patch of weedy shrubs and stayed with the job 'til it was done - woohoo!

The wet weather has also been helping our firefighters. Mid-June isn't too early for wildfires, but their intensity so early in the season is highly unusual.

And on the subject of birds... My family spent time with our relatives in Arizona a couple weeks ago, including an aunt in Phoenix, who had the most amazing collection of birds visiting her feeder. Watching baby quail move so fast they were nothing but brown blurs, seeing a pair of feral lovebirds (really!) - we just don't get them here! Or freshly-picked grapefruit, so sweet it needed no sugar. But I digress on my digression...

Thanks for the lovely post, Magpie!
 
I love grapefruit and I never put sugar on them.

It's fun to visit other locations and see different wildlife.
 
They are my all time favourite (bearded ones).
My dear departed Grandpa was a terrific iris grower, and he passed the love of irises on to my mother, who passed it to me.

As far as my garden goes, it is currently a small lake. I am really over winter already, and that's before this alleged snowstorm that is apparently on the way. No thanks!
 
I did miss your comment back, but I went back this morning to read it. [:)] I can't see the rainbow effect at all (either it's my eyesite, my computer, or I'm looking in the wrong place). Since the Sun is fairly well hidden by that cloud, I'm *guessing* it is due to your camera. I always like a mackerel sky, and at sunset they're even better.

I have no bird sightings to report, mainly because of the construction work going on behind our house (and probably my cats...). Though they're pretty rubbish at destorying any wildlife. Between them they've bought back: 3 pigeon eggs (unfertilised), a live toad (which got re-homed) and a block of polystyrene.

And since it has been dreary weather for most of the week, and just a blanket of cloud, I have no cloud pictures to share either. Perhaps next week!

[:)]

(Though, the Jasmine in my garden is dieing. Any suggestions to bring it back to life?)
 
and it is not really late after a crazy-physically demanding day i can think 'down-hill' and not 'up-hill' if you can gather my meaning[laugh].

The light from gathering or passing storms is a exciting time for camera work. Your 1st shot is dark with the power of a storm looming. I really think it depends on the part of the country you are where your emotions lie to such a condition. In the middle of the country i suspect it would be fear due to tornado formation. It leaves less room for just wonder. Watching storms here is pretty safe 'entertainment'. But all in all some level of fascination still will creep in.

I think such pictures as your 2nd, the lit and unlit areas of a landscape offers a kind of grandeur to mood. For me it is a serene moment or the same with a surreal element to embrace.

The iris is one of those flowers that offer such color. I love to get behind them early or late in the day and get the light that passes through them. But then that is true of any translucent flower:).

This morning i got a shot of a common flower but it always finds a way to pleases me. Here it feels very much alive and vibrant against the dark stoic utilitarian form of firewood and is embraced by the ethereal subdued form of maple leaves and the playful, perhaps elfish form of the fence pickets.
 
about storms approaching and storms departing.

The storm approaching wasn't really a storm.. although we'd had a few deluges in that week. And I wasn't too worried about it.

But it was an 'ending' of light and of day. So there was a sense of something closing, so to speak.

And when I stuck my head out the door for the second picture, a song sprung to mind:
Alleluia, the great storm is over,
Lift up your wings and fly!
Alleluia, the great storm is over,
Lift up your wings and fly!

Because the song is such a joyous one and when one sees a clear sky after a storm, it is such a bright, uplifting sight.

‘A great Shadow has departed,’ said Gandalf, and then he laughed, and the sound was like music, or like water in a parched land; and as he listened the thought came to Sam that he had not heard laughter, the pure sound of merriment, for days upon days without count. It fell upon his ears like the echo of all the joys he had ever known. But he himself burst into tears. Then, as a sweet rain will pass down a wind of spring and the sun will shine out the clearer, his tears ceased, and his laughter welled up, and laughing he sprang from his bed.
Click to expand...

Impatiens are such a simple little flower that will light up the darkest area of the yard/garden with color. I had a friend pooh-pooh them as a non-interesting flower and I told her.. but, oh.. put them in the darkness there along the fence and they will delight you with color when you look out your window.

We had purchased some really interestingly shaped hostas a few years ago but they are so delicate and dark that they just blend in with all the other green and dim light of our yard so I suggested to the Mister that we get some impatiens to put between them and the large rhododendron bush so the color of the impatiens can highlight the shape of the hostas.

You are a bit of a poet, sil. :-)
 
are all I planted for the last 25 years at the lake. They do very well in shade and will do well in full sun if you water them every day. Always planted purple and orange. The hummingbirds like them a lot, and I used to give my nieces and nephews (when they were toddlers) the seed pods to play with--they're lots of fun to pop, as they kind of explode sending the seeds flying.
 
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